A great pair of barbotine tiles with
nature studies of blossom and fruit.
Lovely natural colours very relaxing but
still a pleasure to behold, exceedingly
brilliant glazes that create a glow in the
sark effect as they catch the light. These
tiles were made for the ironfounders
William Henry Micklethwait, and when
fitted in to iron fireplaces with the
coals glowing would really look
amazing
Entirely handmade, true arts &
crafts, the buff clay pressed in to a
mould with grains of brown and green clay
to produce a speckled effect. Then
decorated by painting with slips rather
than stain giving a three dimensional
effect and finished with a brilliant
glaze. Very strong and durable tiles made
from dense buff clay and thicker than
usual at half an inch.
Versos very clean, Staffordshire knot
badge, rare impressed registration
numbers, incised pattern numbers. Tiles
for the scholar of dates, designs and
techniques, not really to be stuck on to a
wall, I suspect that few museums have seen
or even heard of these.
Only three barbotine tiles with
registration numbers are known, the
designs registered to Wm Henry
Micklethwait ironfounders from Rotheram
the tiles made for them by Sherwin and
Cotton. Hand decorated tiles never have
embossed or impressed pattern or
registration numbers [1] except
with this rare exception where the clay is
plastic clay and the clay pressed soon
before the tile was decorated. The
decorating would be effected when the clay
was still quite moist as it would help the
slips to adhere.
The design registration numbers suggest
that barbotine tiles like this were
produced before similar modern majolica
tiles (dust pressed relief and multicolour
lead glazes). These have pattern numbers
B225 and B227 suggesting a couple of
hundred barbotine designs had already been
made by 1886 which would certainly be over
the course of a number of years. The
earliest multicolour modern majolica I
have seen with registration number is
1887, a handful of earlier registrations
are noted although it is not known if
these were made polychrome.
[1] This is a great clue for
identifying tube lined tiles, if they have
moulded pattern or registration numbers
verso they aren't tubelined. The possible
exception would be if the clay was plastic
clay but I've never seen one with moulded
number, a plastic clay tube lined with
rubber stamped registration number has
been noted.
